


Sense All Evil

by Anonymous



Category: Naruto
Genre: Body Horror, Crack Treated Seriously, Everyone loves playing god, Gen, How many SIs are hiding?, Kekkei Genkai | Bloodline Limit, Mutated Animals, OC Iwa-nin team, POV Alternating, POV Third Person, Reincarnation, Self-Insert, Time Loop, Unreliable Narrator, just according to keikaku, mentions of torture, oc-insert, reliable narrator
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:01:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29207046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: "Monkey see not, hear not, speak not..."Ayumi was born into this world without remembering a single dream, drowning when she opens her eyes. She knows something is wrong with her and she knows why. There's another name in the back of her head.-----An odd and free-spirited MC doesn't know she's about to become a pawn in the great scheme a millennium in the makings. (MULTI OC/SIs)
Kudos: 14
Collections: Anonymous





	1. If only...

If one would be blissfully ignorant, there are two types of stories. Some stories have humble beginning that ends with a grand finale or a royal heritage where they lose it all, before the story's hero climbs their way back up- this story is neither of the two.

It starts in fire, and ends in fire- in the trash heap.

One would be proud to say this story is not like the others. That is what any narrator wants. It is how two girls living alone in the outskirts wish to whisked away by charming nobles and live in comfortable homes. People wish to be special.

Truth is plain and trite to recall. No matter what ladders are climbed, there is someone more special who is ahead.

Some kids who sleep with lullabies and fairytales hanging over their heads, are one future ahead of those who sleep in naked night, fighting for their days to continue.

A small child, too thin to be well-fed, darts between shadowed walls and looks in each crack and corner possible. Her clothing could be likened to rags with how ratty holes eat away at it and how the colors are faded.

She knows how people can be so easily distracted and how easy it is to swipe away an entire pouch of coins. She has no grievances with stealing and she'll do it all over again, to keep herself and her sister fed.

She'll take what she can, no one is going to give her anything.

The night is cold and it bites at her exposed skin though she will gladly suffer if she could give her littler sister all the rags and food she could.

She dreams of eating fresh bread and a hot soup, but the reality is that she will be stuck searching for spoils in the rotten scraps that restaurants and shops throw away. 

Her hair is cut raggedly and short like a little boy because the little girls disappear more than the little boys. She knew, because she had an older girl Mikan look after her, claim that she'll take care of her because the two siblings remind her of her family.

That was when the older sister became the middle sister in a group of three, where she was shaping up to be stronger than the other boys. It was a strength that Mikan was proud of from the younger sister.

She could fight off boys as big as her or big as Mikan. It made her feel like she towered over everyone and she couldn't be beaten. 

Until people came and collected Mikan. Her strength left her beaten into the ground.

Mikan was gone before her eyes, disappearing faster than a newly acquired piece of fresh fruit. Her beauty became more prominent as years passed on, any old woman would want her.

She is the older sister again and she looks after her littler sister. She rubs dirt and mud deep into their faces and skin and she dusts their clothing. They look like ugly, _ugly_ little piglets.

That is fine as long as they live another night and under a new day, where there is a little more hope of living. That's how it always has been.

She looks at a pile of bags and grabs what she can, not too much because someone might notice. 

She can't check their contents, else the manager of this place will think there's some sort of wild animals scavenging back here. Then they might hire scary men to look out for this place.

She slips away and walks calmly, ignoring people as she walks on dirt roads and people ignore her back. No one wants to ask, not really. She's lucky, too, that this is not one of the big villages.

She enters an alleyway and squeezes herself between them, holding the bags at her sides and slipping into the emptier parts of the village.

She makes her home here like anyone else without a place to call home. There is trash and there is buried trash. Scraps of metals, plastic and discarded things she wish not to say.

People threw their trash down this river and littered the place, making it a dumping place. 

She knows she shouldn't be here and that this place makes them a little sick, but that is fine for her and her little sister. They endured.

It drives people away, making them throw what they can behind. She knows what the villagers say, that it is in the air and waters, before the trash clogged and dirtied the waters. 

A giant bug monster with lots and lots of tails flew over here, throwing miasma like a net over this place. It is poison, it is taint, it is a _curse_.

Perhaps that is why her once-was happy family left her and her baby sister here. Maybe she and her sister are a curse. It wasn't easy living here. She struggled without proper aid and it was pity that spared her sister's life.

But it was not goodwill. It was not enough for that old lady to want to take them in like her own. She learned to hate people like that and she has, ever since.

She scoffs and throws the bags down, before kicking a can. It launches off and bounces with a _clank!_ against some bent metal pole stuck in the ground.

She hears her little sister scurrying from out under a tent.

"What did you collect, nee-chan?"

"I don't know, sweet fish. Why don't you help me look, _hm_?" She hums and kneels down, prying open the bag with her hands. Her sister helps, too.

"I hope no fish! Because it's smelly."

"If it was smelly, then I'll know. I wouldn't have gotten it." She's used to looking at the nasty overalls that might make someone too used to clean want to barf or look away. She throws some soggy plates and napkins away.

"Ah! Look, noodles." Ayumi dips her hand into the bag and pulls out a container of half eaten noodles. "What a waste!"

She pokes at the noodles and squeezes it between her fingers. "Eugh. From today? It has tiny greens on it. Must be some nice spice."

Ayumi nods and sniffs the noodle, then she nods in approval. She tries to shove it into her older sister's arms. "Here! You didn't have anything yesterday."

She shakes her head. "It's fine. There's more to look through." Ayumi pouts, before looking at the container. Her eyes look intense.

"Nee-chan? Why don't we... go with the big kids?" Ayumi mumbles, picking at her noodles. Her big sister stills.

She says nothing in response and continues looking for anything salvageable to eat. Anything's fine. If it makes her a little sick, that's fine. Feverish and motionless? No good. She stays away from anything too smelly and revolting. Nothing moldy or with its color changed.

"Nee-chan?" Ayumi shifts. "Come on, nee-chan. They're not so bad... We'll be safer in a larger group."

"No, we won't. That'll make us a bigger target," She says with quiet confidence. "They'll clean us out. Like rats. I'm your older sister. I'll protect you. We don't need anyone."

"Yui..." Ayumi eats her noodles with small bites. "One of them talked to me. I think their name was Kenta?" Yui's attention snaps up.

"When? What did they want?" Yui pales.

"When you were gone in the morning, they asked me if I could, um, play distraction?" Ayumi looks away from Yui and throws the container behind her when she is done eating it. "So, I said yes, if they gave me something. They gave me some coins, uh."

"Distraction? What if you were caught! Now those people will remember your faces. How did you do it? Did you give your name?" Yui jumps over the bags and stumbles. She grabs Ayumi by the shoulders.

"Yui! Calm down!" Ayumi pulls away. "I'm not a baby anymore. It was safe. No one was hurt. No one noticed anything. Anyone can play distraction. But you, you don't let me! All the other kids do it."

Ayumi looks at her older sister with accusation and watches Yui not deflate in defeat. Yui rears her shoulders up.

"No, you can't! Ayumi, you have to stay here, okay? It's okay if some kids come talk to you or you go a little farther from here," Yui speaks so hurriedly that she has to breath again by pausing. "You can't go out into the village and run around! I won't be there to protect you."

"Then be there to protect me!" Ayumi throws her arms out and stands up. She steps away and walks back to her tent. She sits down.

"I _can_ protect you. To do that, you _have_ to stay here. No big scary men likes going here, okay? _Okay_?" Yui says with desperation and scoots over to her sister, on all fours. "Please. Don't go out to the village."

"I'm six! I'm not a big baby. There's this girl I met who was younger than you, but she-" Ayumi waves her sister's hand away and tries to gather her thoughts. 

Ayumi is frustrated and angry. She claws at the floor absentmindedly, caking her fingernails with dirt. She flicks the dirt crumbs out from her nails.

"She was one of those magic people. She runs on rooftops. She does tricks. Pretty tricks."

Yui drops her mouth wide and closes it, because- _no way_ , those murderers were that close? To this insignificant part in the _Land of Waterfalls_? 

She knows what Ayumi is talking about. It's not good.

Yui has seen those kinds of people before. She's heard of them, yes, but never up-close. It was the rare silhouette that hops over rooftops and gets her heart beating- a _shinobi_.

She knows there are occasions when the monsters would be here: either they're here for something or passing by. She hopes it is the latter. The last time... Yui blanches, ' _People died. An entire family!_ '

The worst part wasn't the deaths. It was the unrest and tight lips that followed, before the deceased disappeared on everyone's minds. 

Was the family collateral damage? The target? Yui knew those monsters in human skin were a sort of human evil.

"That girl is a bad person. It doesn't matter if she's a kid, too! She's killed, not like a wild boar rampaging. She does it because she can."

Ayumi furrows her eyebrows together and she stands up to step away from Yui. She crosses her arms. "Do you know her? I do. She was very nice and... and she thinks I could be strong, too."

" _Strong_?" Yui rolls the word over her mouth like it is indescribable to consider her baby sister anything but. Yui scoffs, like she tends to do when she is upset. "That doesn't mean anything. You're a normal girl, not a monster. Monsters have true strength. No one beats them."

"She has a house," Ayumi blurts out.

"Huh?" Yui blinks, confused.

"She has a family."

"What about it?" Her processed confusion slips out before she can stop it. Her stomach turns. She knows where this is heading.

"... She's happy. She's a happy monster. She has a house, where we live in trash. She has a family, where we were abandoned." Ayumi turns to look up into her older sister's glossy red eyes. "She has friends. She can go anywhere she wants. She's not scared. She can fight."

"She kills people. People like us. That strength is a monster's."

"I'll be fine with that. If it means I can have a roof over our heads. If it means I can put food on the table. If- if I could protect you. I'll be a _shinobi_."

Yui stays silent. She lets out a sigh. "Not everyone can just go and be a shinobi." 

Ayumi's face brightens up, leaving Yui confused. "But, what if someone said I could?" She giggles.

"That girl did!" Ayumi beams and rocks on her heels. She fidgets with her hands, embarrassed. She takes it as an invitation when Yui is stunned silent. 

"She says, she says that my chakra thing is, um, not unlocked or used. But, but she said! She said it looked like mine is developed. Like a shinobi's child. She said that if, um, that Takigakure has no claim over me. I should join her this week!" Ayumi waves her arms around.

"No!" Yui shakes her head with a yell. "What? Stay away from them! Shinobi are monsters, nothing like people. They kill and kill... and, and..."

"She was very nice to me, nee-chan! She believes in me unlike you! She thinks I could be strong, not weak unlike you." Ayumi sticks her tongue out at Yui and bats away her sister's hand when Yui tries to hold her shoulder.

Ayumi skips away and jumps onto the river's heavy pile of trash in a single leap. She hops to the other side.

"Ayumi!"

"I swear on it, nee-chan. I'll become a shinobi and take us away from here!" Ayumi turns to face Yui and points her thumb at herself. She stands with pride holding her back straight.


	2. I could tell you...

Ayumi thinks her sister is being dumb and stupid, in a way that big kids are because big kids think that because they are a couple of inches taller, their brain must be bigger!

Ayumi kicks a rock away.

It is the next morning and she knows her older sister is upset. Yui is gone before Ayumi wakes up with the sun. When Ayumi first woke up alone, Ayumi understood and threw the rags blanketing her to the side.

Ayumi grumbles when she walks around. She doesn't want to be here forever. What could Yui understand? She leaves all the time and she doesn't ask for permission!

It makes it easy to feel no guilt when she sneaks out into populated areas.

She kicks the trash away with her calloused feet because she cannot be bothered to put on sandals. Yui stole them for her, or had traded something good for them. Right now, she can't wear Yui's goodwill.

Ayumi wonders if this is a problem that goes away with time. With time, she'll be older and Yui _should_ start thinking her as a big kid by then!

Problem is, what if Ayumi messed up already? It might be too late to be a shinobi -the thing that Yui is afraid of- when she is grown up.

"Stupid, stupid! Why did I tell her about Toshiko? What if nee-chan tries to scare her away?" Or, worst, that Toshiko tries to scare _nee-chan_ away?

Ayumi doesn't know what to do. She has hope that because she didn't describe to Yui what Toshiko looks like, that Yui won't figure out who Toshiko is.

The hope deflates as soon as Ayumi thinks of it. Toshiko dresses like a foreigner, talks like she isn't from here, and walks like it.

She doesn't know how to put her finger on it, but Toshiko was off. Maybe it is because she is a shinobi, or a _monster_? Toshiko is too friendly to be a _real_ monster. She's sure Yui said that to scare her.

Ayumi shakes her head and sits down on the dirt floor. She doesn't have much of anything to do, except for organizing the trash piles here and burying some things.

She knows to be careful because the animals around here are angry things. Angrier than what Yui says they should be. Nee-chan thinks it is the miasma. Ayumi thinks it is because people made their home dirty.

They had a pet dog. It was nice. Others were nice, too.

Ayumi finds it easier to blame things on the miasma. If miasma makes people angry, then maybe it is making her sister angry?

That can't be true. Ayumi knows she's strong like her sister. She knows that she and her sister are the only kids who can come here without running away like headless chickens. That didn't seem like anger, more like cowardice.

Maybe this place is haunted and the other kids see the ghost she can't? Ayumi shrugs, but it is a thought that keeps the boredom away.

Ayumi's throat is dry. She wants to get a drink, so she crawls over to the river and scoops her hand in the dirty waters. Somehow, looking at the river makes her feel sad, and she assumes it's because her name is a fish name.

Her sister said it was a name for good luck because why not? Sweet fish. Ayumi thinks it is a name that her parents wouldn't name her. Her sister gave her a sweet name, she is much better than her unknown parents.

Ayumi is glad that Yui never cares to speak about them. She won't be able to stand hearing about them.

Yui is her family, and that's all she knows. She's fine with that. She takes another sip, then another, until she is quenched.

Ayumi decides that she should sneak away again, because Yui knows what she did, what is one more try?

She lets her feet carry out closer to the village and she wonders if Kenta will be there or if Toshiko will be there to talk to. She doesn't know what Toshiko is here for and if her task will end shortly. That's fine, as long as Toshiko doesn't forget her. Ayumi really wants to be a shinobi for her sister.

Nee-chan needs to remember she is a kid, not a stuffy adult. That's really bad. It was really scary when Ayumi had to run with the other kids, until Toshiko showed up to check on the commotion.

Ayumi pauses within 20 minutes of walking inside the village.

Dusty blonde hair and a pair of light green eyes?

Toshiko is looking around, where no one else is, but her. Her face is scrunched up and she scratches at her throat. What is she looking for?

"Toshiko?" Ayumi calls out and Toshiko doesn't react, until calm green eyes met Ayumi's eyes. Toshiko smiles.

"So you really do live around here?" Toshiko confirms, glancing sideways like she is checking something. She walks up to Ayumi and stands a little taller than her.

"Yep!" Ayumi nods with excitement. Toshiko looks impressed and she looks over Ayumi's shoulder. "It's a really quiet place. Very nice. People don't like coming here!"

"Quiet?" Toshiko laughs softly, like she finds the notion silly. "It's really noisy to me and I wasn't trying to sense this place."

" _Sense_? Do shinobi have really good ears or noses?" Ayumi turns up her nose. "Everyone says it's smelly, but fish is _smellier_!" Then there is her own name. She doesn't know what to think of her name. Is it a name that is sweet-smelling or fishy?

"Ah, yes. We can! That's a secret." Toshiko scratches her cheek absentmindedly. She blinks. "Wait. No, it's not that. You _do_ know why people don't like coming here, right?"

"It's cursed." A look. "Uh, it's haunted?" "By what, ghosts?"

"Um, of course not!" Ayumi flushes when it looks like Toshiko doesn't believe in that. Toshiko giggles and shakes her head.

"See, I would really love it if you show me around, hm? I have trouble navigating this place..." Toshiko holds out a hand for Ayumi to take. Ayumi does.

"I'll be glad to, Toshiko!" Ayumi smiles to match Toshiko's and she turns away. Excited, Ayumi is eager to point out things to Toshiko and she feels so very smart, knowing all these things. She points out former houses that hasn't been used for a few years at least.

Toshiko's eyes are scrutinizing the place and she tightens her hold on Ayumi's hand without meaning to. Ayumi's firm voice doesn't do anything to shake a growing discomfort. It crawls up her spine, just an inch edging away from making her shiver.

Toshiko coughs weakly into her hand. She pulls cloth over her nose and looks at Ayumi's beaming face. Toshiko raises an eyebrow in speculation.

"What do you know about this place?"

"Hm? Not much. I just live here," Ayumi shrugs. "Me and my sister were... always here." She looks at the ground and stops. She looks at their shadows without a word.

Ayumi thinks she is... fine with being her sister, it's just that she wonders how much louder her life would be with them. It doesn't help that her nee-chan doesn't like her going out of this place.

"That sounds awful," Toshiko speaks up. Ayumi's breath hitches and looks up at her. How straightforward of her. Ayumi looks shy.

"Ah, Ayumi? What do you know about this place. I'm just so curious about why this place is deserted and cut off from the rest of the village?" Toshiko gives a wry smile and pats Ayumi's head with her other hand.

Ayumi perks up. "Miasma!"

" _Miasma_?" Toshiko pauses and aborts a grab for something. "How are we breathing in it then?" Ignoring the tingle of the cough in the back of her throat, Toshiko doesn't feel _sickly_. Toshiko has already pulled down the cloth from her nose. It's strange, everything is better.

"Uh, oh. I don't actually, um, know? It might be miasma?" Ayumi gives an unsure smile. "Who cares about that! People _do_ come here and they don't drop dead. Anything else you want to ask?"

Toshiko nods and her gaze drifts off. She watches a squirrel the size of a dog stare at them from a rooftop. _That_ , that Toshiko wants to get to. Hopefully later, because that squirrel looks twitchier the longer she looks at it.

Toshiko nudges Ayumi and Ayumi walks again. Toshiko keeps the squirrel in her peripheral vision.

"I guess not... But look! I know a lot of good hiding places here!" Ayumi smiles with her teeth on display. "Some places were looted, but-"

Toshiko takes another step, before coughing again. She looks a little pale. "Ah. This is some nasty work." Then her eyebrows furrow when she finally, _finally_ thinks about it.

Ayumi wonders what Toshiko is thinking so much about, before her attention is diverted to the green glow that Toshiko casts in her hand when she signs.

Toshiko hovers her hands over herself and Ayumi is about to ask her, before she is stopped short when Toshiko casts a glance at her.

She holds up a hand. Ayumi stares at it.

"Uh, so. Why are you here? You're from Iwa." Ayumi dismisses the gesture and she picks up a pole and waves it around.

Toshiko side-eyes Ayumi with a curious glint. "We're making sure there's no threats around." She ducks when Ayumi comes close to giving her a black eye. Toshiko musters up a glare and Ayumi has enough shame to look guilty.

It doesn't last long because Ayumi looks around with that pole in her hand.

There's more debris and trash along this way. Ayumi finds them fun, because she steps up on an uneven rock and jumps onto another platform. She swings her pole around and Toshiko tenses. Ayumi laughs and spins around once. She launches the pole high up and Toshiko watches it go after a house.

"Hoommee runn!" Ayumi jumps down beside Toshiko. "And she scores!!" She hollers.

As they continue, houses begin to look more ruined and rundown.

"I don't think there's anyone in these houses. You said you live in a tent, but not a house. Why not?" Toshiko thinks something is getting a little weird and she can't put a finger on it. Ayumi is too used to it. "You're way too carefree. What if something _collapses_ on you?"

Ayumi has no thoughts to her home's peculiarities or people's behaviors about it.

Ayumi giggles. "If there was, I'll be dead, wouldn't I? There's nothing around. Except for wild animals. Me and my sister can take care of them!"

"Like that giant squirrel?"

"That used to be our pet dog, until it ran away." Ayumi nods, somber. "We take care of them." She frowns, when she finds Toshiko stopping. Toshiko is trying to keep her cool, from what, Ayumi has no clue.

"Ah, this is the worst." Toshiko drops hold with Ayumi and runs a couple of steps ahead. She pauses, taking in everything. Her hands move together through rotations so fast that Ayumi can't pick them out.

Toshiko closes her eyes in concentration, focusing and molding her chakra. Her eyes open with a gasp and she trembles. _Bad idea_. That made it worse.

"Toshiko!" Ayumi runs to take hold of Toshiko to steady her. Another bad idea. Toshiko grabs Ayumi's wrist, jittery from before. Toshiko realizes what she is about to and lets go when Ayumi yelps.

"I'm okay!" Ayumi says hurriedly when the other girl's expression falls dismayed. Ayumi's heart squeezes a little. Guilt pools in her stomach. Ayumi rubs her wrist.

"I was trying to- make sense. Make sense of it." Toshiko knits her eyebrows together and she looks at a distant wall. "My team will come here soon to check the place out. Don't worry, I already told them about you."

"Eh?" Ayumi blinks. "Where are they?"

She looks around, like she could spot them if she did.

Toshiko shakes her head. She kneels and slips a kunai from her sleeves. It has a small tag on its handle with squiggly lines. She flicks her wrist and nails it into a nearby hole.

"They spending time with the villagers and talking to the village chief. I'm here because I want to see where you live. You know, hang out!" Toshiko raises her head to meet Ayumi's eyes. "Ah, do you know where the center of the 'miasma' is?"

"Uh, the center?" Ayumi is confused. "Villagers come here to dump their waste. There's no center?"

Toshiko takes a moment to pause. "Ah? There's no way they could do that, can they?" She talks more to herself.

"Uh, I have no clue?"

"Let's go farther." Toshiko makes a footnote of it and makes a rough estimate of something else on her mind. She points at a direction. "If I collapse, can you bring me to the village?"

"Collapse? Are you sick?" Ayumi hops over to Toshiko and frowns. She tries to feel Toshiko's forehead. Her older sister always does that for some reason.

Toshiko laughs and brushes Ayumi's grabby hands away.

"No, not at all! The residue of that monster is nasty. But it might be better than five years ago-" Toshiko is struck by realization. "Ah, that's why we waited."

Monster. That word again; the word that makes Ayumi itch a little. She's curious. Toshiko sees Ayumi turn curious-filled eyes at her.

"Hey Toshiko? You really think I could be a shinobi? I'm not, uh, too young and dumb as a kid, am I?"

"What?" Toshiko smirks. "You think I'm dumb, too?" Ayumi gasps and waves her arms, mortified.

"No, no, no! I didn't mean it like that, Toshiko- _sama_." Because -sama was for important people, as said by nee-chan.

"Ha." Toshiko cannot stop grinning, so she looks away to hide it. "I'm a special case. I'm one of the most skilled and proudest kid my age at Iwagakure!"

Ayumi has no clue what that means and she gives Toshiko a cheer anyways.

"I'm a child prodigy. Normally I won't be promoted to genin in peacetime that early, but... Something's heating up."

"..." Ayumi looks at the ground and reaches out to hold Toshiko's hand. Toshiko takes it.

"Ah!" Toshiko smiles earnestly and looks down at Ayumi. "Hey! I think I can get you and your sister to come with us, right? To Iwagakure. You're resistant to the putrid air here. No one-"

Ayumi raises her head and looks at Toshiko. The latter girl is grimacing with confusion palpable on her face.

"This body constitution of yours. You might be from-" Toshiko says, until something growls.

Toshiko is already pulling Ayumi behind her -" _Hey_!"- and a kunai is in her hand. Her arm whips out and slashes its face. It bounces back.

"What?!" Ayumi squeaks, indignant.

"What is _that_?" Toshiko looks aghast. Toshiko barely registered the shadowy four-legged creature, something that Toshiko didn't notice until it growled with haste.

Ayumi looks under Toshiko's arm. Her eyes bug with tearful glee and _at-long-last_ reunion. It's been a while since she saw this one.

" _Kitty_!"

A large, mutated and bulging with muscles for fur creature was across from them. It bares its canines. A balding coyote. It does not look an inch friendly.

It looks like it clawed itself, that or it got into an all-out brawl with giant not-friendly cats. The grotesque coyote is red and swelling and leaking all over. Its stench is so palpable that she wonders how she missed it.

"Ah. Not so much man's best friend anymore, are you?" Toshiko squeaks out. Ayumi eyes Toshiko, before flickering her gaze to the coyote.

Kitty is cute.

... Ayumi didn't mean to say it out loud. Toshiko is staring at her like she is insane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Did you know Ayumi's name is spelled with the kanji 鮎 for "sweetfish" and 己 for "oneself"?
> 
> Thank you for reading this far.


	3. I love you,

The coyote growls and its chest vibrates from the action. It keeps its eyes on Toshiko and bares dirty white fangs at her.

"Step back, Ayumi! I'll get rid of the coyote-" Toshiko shouts, fully alerted, and she wishes she has a longer blade because she doesn't want to be close to it.

Ayumi ignores Toshiko's words and dilemma in favor of running towards the coyote. She waves the coyote over in the same manner one would do a friend. The coyote stops growling and looks at Ayumi with caution. It side eyes Toshiko.

"Kitty! You're hurt? Did you come for me? Let me!" Ayumi stops a few feet in front of Kitty and Toshiko stares at her. Ayumi thinks that Toshiko was way too hasty on pulling a blade on Kitty. Kitty is a good cat!

"Toshiko! You're scaring Kitty. Calm down. Kitty is friendly!" Ayumi grins, not adding 'some of the times' because Toshiko is looking too stabby for her liking.

Kitty lowers their head and whimpers, coming closer to Ayumi. Ayumi frowns when she looks at the gush of blood on Kitty's side of head. Ayumi holds a hand over and Toshiko flinches.

Toshiko was close to deciding that she'll use Earth style ninjutsu, regardless of the consequences. Then she stops, when Kitty leans into Ayumi's hand.

Toshiko curses under her breath and flips through hand signs, dipping into sensory mode because Ayumi is doing _something_ that she shouldn't be able to.

Kitty pants and sits back, rubbing its head on Ayumi's leg when Ayumi is finished. There is crusted blood on Kitty's face like before, but it's not gushing.

The putrid odor that makes Toshiko want to retch and run away is fading away. Toshiko sniffs the air, confused.

Ayumi doesn't think much of it and continues to pet Kitty's head. She smiles sadly. She clenches the rim of her ragged shorts.

"I don't know why they're so angry all the time, but I think it's the miasma. It's not their fault!" Ayumi runs a hand across the back of the coyote and watches it relax under its touch, as if a pain was being relieved.

"A-Ayumi, wow. I really think you're from _Taki_." Ayumi's back is turned to Toshiko and isn't able to tell that Toshiko looks really dumbfounded. Toshiko lowers her hand and puts her kunai away, too dazed to realize that the blade was dirty.

"Eh? I thought I come from this village?"

Toshiko scratches the back of her neck. "Ah. But, it adds up."

"What does?" Ayumi can't figure out why Toshiko looks like she has trouble saying something. She's sure nee-chan would tell her if Takigakure was destroyed, concerning what country they live in. Then again, Toshiko is from Iwa.

"..." Toshiko stands silent.

Ayumi is bugged out. She can't remember if she's ever heard of what relation the two villages have with each other. Ayumi pouts. Did Taki and Iwa have a bad relationship with each other? 

Ayumi loses her train of thought when Kitty licks her face and Ayumi laughs.

" _Ookay_. Are all animals like that? I don't know about you, Ayumi. I don't want to get eaten by your 'pet dog'." Toshiko shifts, wrong-footed from something, she doesn't know what. She feels awkward like she's watching something private. Toshiko wishes her sensei was here. He'll know more.

"Squirrels is nice," Ayumi says, completely avoiding the question that Toshiko is most concerned about, not like she did that intentionally though. Ayumi hums.

"This is some freaky Disney Princess going on." Toshiko normally likes dogs. Kitty _looks_ like one, she imagined a dog that took off its fur coat. She can't tell what kind. Toshiko just hopes a giant, mutated bear doesn't come on scene. She'll _scream_.

Ayumi freezes. " _Did you say Disney_...?"

"... Iwa entertainment?" Toshiko blandly adds and tries to wave it off. Ayumi nods, feeling like that it was a lie. If Toshiko doesn't want to tell her, that's fine. _Probably_.

Disney is a familiar word that works like sand, slipping from her awareness. The hole in her memory itches at her mind, like the spots where Kitty is licking her. 

That used to be an awful experience and Ayumi thought it was mean to tell Kitty to stop just because of a little pain. Nevertheless, Ayumi is thankful that it no longer makes her face swell with hives.

"Hm! Show me it. I'm going there!" Ayumi stands up, letting Kitty off of her. Kitty whimpers and bites at her shorts. Ayumi pats Kitty between the ears. Smooth.

"Hahahaha. Sure!" Toshiko panics and switches between looking at the girl and at the... dog that was dubbed Kitty, of all things. At least Ayumi didn't name it Aka for red.

"I'm six and turning seven very soon. Is that okay?" Ayumi asks again and looks over at Toshiko.

"Yep! I think-" Toshiko reassures Ayumi and watches Ayumi light up. Toshiko's attention refocuses on Kitty and she can tell. Kitty was red, like blood and welts, and now Kitty is pinkish. "I think your _thing_... will be useful! Sensei is cool with it."

Ayumi grins and skips over to Toshiko. Kitty trails after her. Toshiko tries not to look disturbed and smiles back. Ayumi takes Toshiko's hand in hers.

"Do you want to continue our detour, Toshiko?"

Toshiko looks at Kitty, Ayumi, then at herself. She repeats and thinks. She feels like her teammates will beat her up for having fun on her own in this boring village. The villagers are hard to talk to, though Toshiko can't tell if it's because Toshiko looks too babyish to be taken seriously.

Ayumi snickers and points at Toshiko's face. "You look adorable when pouting!"

"What!" Toshiko flushes. "You can't point that out."

"Yeesss!!" Ayumi squeals and Toshiko tries to grab Ayumi. Ayumi ducks underneath her arm and runs off very fast.

"Hey! Come back!" Toshiko shouts at Ayumi. She hears Kitty growl and she blanches. She runs for safety- _Ayumi_ , in other words. "Don't leave me here!"

"Catch me if you can-" Ayumi taunts and throws a look behind her to see if Toshiko can catch up. It didn't matter if Ayumi slowed down, because Toshiko vanishes in the same moment, dust kicking up. 

It was her only warning when two arms wrap around Ayumi's midsection and lift her off the ground.

" _Toosshiikooo_!!" Ayumi yells and she is dropped onto the floor unceremoniously. She pauses and falls into a fit of laughter. "That was cool! How did you do that?!"

"Your running stance is awful, but you can fast for a civilian kid. I can give you some pointers." Toshiko grins. She smells something rotten to her left and almost looks over.

The nearby sounds of Kitty panting signal that it walked over from behind the two girls. Toshiko angles herself to avoid exposing her back to the canine. Kitty takes a look in Toshiko's left area, before growling and pulling its ears back. 

Toshiko slowly pauses and spins to her left because it clicks in her mind that Kitty stopped smelling so badly. It smelled like what Kitty first was like so Toshiko didn't take heed of it.

Ayumi follows her gaze, where they see a large bear approaching. Like the coyote, it has no fur and it looks like it has no eyes. Toshiko opens her mouth, closes it and decides there is only one best course of action.

"I haven't seen that one before-" The bear slowly turns its head in their direction and Toshiko can see there is a giant hole in the right side of the bear's lopsided face. The smell is putrid that Toshiko _gags_ , each whiff making her ill.

Toshiko scoops up Ayumi and proceeds to ditch Kitty with the bear. Ayumi gasps and screams over her shoulder, seeing something that Toshiko is not. Ayumi watches Kitty and the bear begin to fight it out. Toshiko was gaining elevation and plopped themselves on a rooftop.

The large coyote launches itself at the bear. The bear snaps at the coyote and misses, the coyote clawing its way up onto the back of the bear. Blood pours in a way that Ayumi never knew it could and screams when the bear throws Kitty off its back.

"Shh!" Toshiko clasps a hand over Ayumi's mouth and eyes flying shadows, the ones that come too close hungrily. She eyes a couple vultures where one of them is as red as the bear and one of them dives down.

"We can't sit here and watch!" Toshiko yanks Ayumi away whose eyes are transfixed on the coyote and bear fighting. "What is that!"

Toshiko jumps to another rooftop with Ayumi in her arms and it is so difficult when the passenger is trying to squirm out.

The vulture lands on the rooftop that the girls had just left.

Ayumi holds her fingers to her lips and _whistles_. The other vulture - _the red one_ \- flies down and Toshiko pulls out three kunai into her hand.

"No, no! They're scavengers. They're mean, but they don't kill!" Ayumi grabs Toshiko's wrist and headbutts Toshiko. The vultures watch. One of them tilts their head and one of them twists their neck all the way around to watch the two oversized animals claw and bite at each other.

"Hey!" Toshiko drops her kunai when she falls over from Ayumi headbutting her and Ayumi landing on top of her. They scramble to de-attach from each other.

"That was dangerous, Ayumi! What if you accidentally fell on my kunai?" Toshiko grumbles. Ayumi sticks her tongue out at her. "I'm serious, kid!"

"You're a kid, too!" Ayumi runs for the edge and looks over at Kitty, who is limping and on its last legs. She jumps off the rooftop and Toshiko fails to grab her. Toshiko groans in frustration and she takes half a second to slide off the rooftop with her. They both land on their feet and one of them takes off for Kitty.

Toshiko scoops up Ayumi not a heartbeat later.

"Ayumi! You'll get hurt fighting... that bear." Looking at the bear doesn't fail to make Toshiko shiver. She can handle guts and gore, sure, but that? It's not something pleasant to look at and it's obnoxiously uneasy on the eyes. "I'll handle it."

Toshiko hides her wince of regret and sets Ayumi down. Ayumi moves away from her.

"What? No! I can take care of myself. If I didn't, then me and my sister wouldn't live here!" Ayumi grabs Toshiko's sleeve before she can take off for the bear.

Toshiko opens her mouth for a retort. She closes it. It does... make sense.

"Watch me, Toshiko!" Ayumi throws a smile Toshiko's way and her expression turns serious. She runs into the field and she jumps up onto rubble. She jumps between them and rolls between the two large animals.

Ayumi picks up Kitty with both arms as she ducks under a wide swing of bear claws overhead. The bear roars at the new arrival, blind but it could smell something odd. Ayumi runs with an arm full of coyote and Kitty whimpers at Ayumi.

"Ayumi! Be careful." Toshiko thumbs a tagged kunai, anxious about using it. Ayumi looks at her, sees equal parts of Toshiko being curious and worried and interested.

Ayumi ignores the feel of sticky mess of blood that dip on her arms and shirt. She doesn't care about how she'll have to throw it away, not when one of those giant, angry animals are around. She has to be careful and she finds herself in luck. She has vision, the bear does not. 

With the blood on her and Kitty, Ayumi thinks she could count on the bear not knowing what her outline looks like. Ayumi digs her feet into the ground and the bear stands up on two feet. It sniffs and turns its head in Ayumi and Kitty's direction.

The bear gets on all fours and charges. Ayumi is not afraid when something giant and large is throwing their weight over 1000 lbs runs at her. Her eyebrows furrow in concentration and she runs for the bear. She plucks a metal bar from the floor.

Toshiko's hand twitches, ready to forget the hesitance of using ninjutsu. Her eyes itches.

Ayumi lets out a deep breath she doesn't know she was holding. She is not useless or weak. What Yui says about her is wrong. Ayumi's eyes brighten. She'll prove it, if not to nee-chan than to a _real_ shinobi!

She can feel her adrenaline make her want to jump out of her skin. She can feel her throat _burn_ in a way that imprints itself into her memories. No matter how long ago, she remembers exhaustion that led way to a feeling so energizing. 

She lands on the back of the bear, stabs the metal bar into its shoulder blade and uses the back as a launchpad.

She lands into a crouch and tilts her head over her shoulder. She watches the bear claw its back and sees when it realizes that whatever was on its back is gone. 

Except for the pole lodged into it. It has difficulty taking the pole out and fails to.

Ayumi raises her hand to her mouth and whistles to catch the bear's attention. The bear whips its head around to her like a predator smelling blood. She grins, teeth full of black ink.

She's feeling positively _feverish_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Did you know that Yui's name is written in kanji 由 for "reason"?
> 
> Thank you for reading this far.


	4. I could be...

"I hate this!" A genin with rosy red cheeks kicks a rock, expecting it to be a pebble and ends up stubbing his foot. He howls. "Gah! My foot! I need some ointment."

"Shut up, loudmouth." Another boy groans, watching his teammate prance around like a deer. "Did you play around, instead of gathering intel?"

" _Intel_? Really? Did these old ladies tell you that they want to pinch your cheeks and go, 'Wow! You look like a strong boy'?" He gags and makes a choking noise. "They gave me candies and I'm feeding them to the family goat." He scratches his cheeks.

"That's because you have an idiot face. Look at how willing you are to poison an innocent goat with old lady candies?"

"Shut up, Chotan! You're annoying. You're the one with a girly face. Just tell me what information you got?" He snaps and turns around. Chotan snorts and leaves his hands into his pockets.

"The same old that Kakko-sensei was told. He's planning on taking Toshiko to the waste zone and see if you could heal the rashes some of the older villagers have." Chotan looks off into the streets and watches the civilians walk by.

He blinks and points at himself with disbelief. " _Me_? Why me? I'm not a medical-nin. I haven't learned everything I could! Wait no, I don't want to be one. I can't just fix some weird cutaneous condition. It's got lesions and discharge leaking out of it," he says with disgust, like it was the most awful thing he's ever seen. It's not.

"You complain about that when you stopped Kakko-sensei from kneeling over in Swamp Country?" Chotan raises an eyebrow. He bats away a tiny child's hand behind him from trying to take his kunai from his back pouch. 

"Shoo, brat. There's no money in there." He glares for good measure and watches the little boy scurry off.

"That's a different matter! It turns out that he was just a _tiny_ bit allergic to the common poisons that rogue Suna-nin use."

"So you can work with random allergic reactions that causes the _same_ exact thing, but you can't look at the villagers?" Chotan scratches his hand. It feels tingly. "Come on, Uta. Let's go find Toshiko."

"It's not the same thing!" Uta screams and runs after the shorter boy. "I didn't know we were here to heal the villagers. Kakko-sensei? Doing it for _no_ pay?"

"I don't think it's that. I think Kakko-sensei wants to see if you can handle whatever we're doing here."

Uta nods, not in agreement. "Yep, sure. Wait a minute, you know what could've happened? They get some _actual_ medical-nin for this mission." Uta waves his arms around. "Where's Toshi?! Did she leave to go hang out with the toddlers around this place?"

"It wouldn't be the first time and I'm not sure what scares me more. Her lack of self-preservation or that no one makes her stay put?"

"You say that like there's _anything_ dangerous around here. This village doesn't have a problem with bandits or thieves. It's some lame C-ranked mission. There's next to no chances of running into shinobi either." Uta groans and watches some brat play Onigokko.

An idea clicks in his mind and Uta jumps up onto someone's wagon, uncaring for their protests and shouts, and jumps off. He grabs the edge of a rooftop and lifts himself onto it. He waves for Chotan to follow. Chotan complies.

Chotan walks up the wall of the building, arms crossed and stands on the rooftop.

"I want to bet that Toshi decided to check out the zone herself, but if I say that, it would become a bad omen."

Chotan sighs, like he often does. "You just did."

"Great! Let's go there and see what she's up to." Uta grins and begins taking off, leaving Chotan in the dust and baffled in the same moment.

"Hey!" Chotan shouts and chases after Uta. "Kakko-sensei said we shouldn't enter there!"

"Unless Toshi is there!" Uta cheers.

"No, he didn't?!" Chotan tries to grab Uta and Uta slips down into the alleyways. Uta cartwheels through the narrow slip and jumps onto someone's fruit stand, after launching off of a trash bin.

"He wanted to take Toshi there, that means Toshi should be there when we are!" Uta happily cherry-picks what he was told and laughs at Chotan, who is chasing after him. Uta lets Chotan try to grab him, only for Uta to be shrouded in smoke.

It reveals itself to be a log in Uta's place.

"Ugh! Substitution jutsu? Where does the log come from!"

"No one knows, no one asks! There's a theory that the log is the user's dormant manifestation of Mokuton! Another one says that the Log is the predecessor to all jutsu!"

"THAT MAKES NO SENSE??? That's a tree-hugger thing!" Chotan looks around, before pinpointing Uta from a rooftop, where Uta is crouching and waving down at Chotan. Chotan's eye twitches. He is going to _punch_ Uta.

"Listen, remember when we went to the deserts and we had a bet going on between the three of us -because Kakko-sensei sucks at gambling, that a cactus will appear in place of a log? I said no! Hail the log!" Uta snickers and runs across the rooftop.

"How would we find Toshiko if we go there?" Chotan runs after him, ignoring obstacles by leaping over them with chakra-enhanced jumps or latching onto the porous walls.

"Knowing her, she'll place one of her special kunai down. We'll just flare at the edge of the zone!" Uta points northwest, where the district will start to be emptied of people, until there's nothing except for some 'stray animals.'

"I cannot wait for Kakko-sensei to suspend us. Can you?" Chotan says, as he runs across the rooftops. Uta grins at Chotan's frown he spots.

"Unless... we finish this objective, before he gets there?"

Chotan opens to his mouth and freezes with a shocked expression, before he gets to reply. Uta is unsettled and in the next moment, finds himself hanging over the rooftop with Chotan.

A hand is on each of their collar and suffocates them with a choke. They are dispensed behind the older shinobi. The shinobi runs a hand through his rat's nest of a hair and ruffles it.

"What did you two say?" Kakko-sensei turns onto them and it barely makes Uta look guilty. Chotan looks like he was caught trying to eat desserts before dinner was over. Chotan crosses his arms and hunches over himself, as best as he can.

"Oh hi, Kakko-sensei! Nice day going, right? Now, what about me going to heal some old man's butt rash? I'll get right to that, sir!" Uta claps his hands together and grins so brightly that Kakko-sensei swears the light reflection _nearly_ blinded him. 

Uta's cheeks are blush-red when he smiles. Kakko-sensei wishes he'll just stop.

"If I was an enemy-nin, you'll both be dead by my hands." Kakko-sensei levels a glare at each of them. "What's this about flaring your chakra? Idiots! Don't get too ahead of yourself. You should both be aware of what rocky terrain this is. It calls for an _avalanche_."

Uta looks at Chotan and at Kakko-sensei. Chotan does the same disbelieving look between them.

"Did they call?" Uta whispers, almost nervous to hear the answer.

Kakko-sensei grunts an affirmative. Uta groans and Chotan sighs in chorus.

"We haven't been here for so long." Chotan rubs his nose. "Is the mission canceled?"

"No, we have to finish this mission before any Kusa-nin or those tree-huggers get any bright ideas about this place. While you two were heading where you're not supposed to, I was sent a mole message that confirmed that this is one of the last places the monster was spotted."

"You mean _Taki_ 's? So, it really is causing the problems the villagers have."

" _Was_ ," Chotan corrects. "It's not here. There are high chances that it will respawn in a couple of years or that it was sealed into an item."

"I thought only Suna sealed their tailed beast into an object?"

"Right. It's not sure if it's limited to the Ichibi. We don't know if it relates to the amount of tails they have. Most villagers prefer keeping them in human hosts." Kakko-sensei hums. "Our spies spotted no bijuu activity elsewhere."

"Do you think that it'll pop up on the battlefield? In a _jinchuriki_?" Uta's face sours. "I don't want to know, ugh."

"It hasn't been spotted for months. All we could do is look for traces of it."

Uta snaps his fingers. "Wait! So this mission isn't to investigate the village? It's to find leads on the whereabouts of that?"

"Obviously, loudmouth. What else would Iwa investigate the village for? This is a non-shinobi village. What threat would live here?" Chotan cuts in the conversation and pushes Uta from where he's perching. Uta shoves back with a growl. "It'll explain the villagers."

Kakko-sensei's bratty genin descend to trying to kill each other, by trying to push the other off the edge. He's sure that they know how to land safely though Kakko-sensei doesn't know if he'll laugh or cry if they forgot the landing procedures. It's one thing learning how to mountain climb to avoid falling, it's another thing to learn falling from a height without breaking your neck.

"Gahh!" Uta disappears from sight as he rolls off the edge. Kakko-sensei takes a moment to wait. He hears no scream after something hits the floor. That's either a good or bad thing. A bad thing if he's dead, a good thing if things are now quiet. 

"Ahh!"

There's that scream. Kakko-sensei is pleased when he looks over. Uta has just set his ankle and looks to be healing himself. Chotan snickers.

Kakko-sensei nudges Chotan off the ledge. Hey, it's _not_ attempted murder. With how far Chotan was leaning off the edge himself, it was assisted murder. The fact that Chotan doesn't look dead and is yelling at Uta for being "too bony to land on" is a plus in Kakko-sensei's book.

" _SENSEI_!! Why did you try to kill me?" "Why did you try to kill me, Chotan!"

"If I was an enemy-nin, you both would be dead," Kakko-sensei says with the same brand of humor that makes Chotan and Uta scream in frustration as loud as each other. It doesn't help that he said that moments earlier.

Kakko-sensei jumps down between the two, after both of them untangled from each other and look to be trying to kill him with glares. The look doesn't look right on a baby genin. It's funny and Kakko-sensei won't admit that to them. His genin are so lively.

"Kakko-sensei, there is a reason why you sent three of us away, isn't there? I doubt that you were trying to have collect information. No one told us anything new. Everyone said the same thing." Chotan narrows his eyes in thought and Uta agrees with a grunt.

"Everyone kept saying we're adorable kids." Uta perks up. He's ignored.

"There is. Good catch." Kakko-sensei pauses, thinks and smirks all in the same moment. "You three didn't need to see what I do. There's other ways of extracting information."

"OH MY _LOG_ , SENSEI?! YOU TORTURED _CIVILIANS_?!" Uta yells, causing Chotan to punch him on the shoulder. Uta glares at him. Kakko-sensei deadpans. That worked too well.

"No, idiot. Civilians break too easily under torture," Chotan so smartly interrupts. Kakko-sensei already sees how Uta will react. He gets it on the nose.

"That's _worst_!" Uta recoils from the imagery that are surely popping up behind his mind's eyes.

"No! It means it won't be anything too _grisly_ for your delicate eyes to see!"

"Hey, no! What if it was something super sensitive?" Uta tries to punch Chotan and he is tackled for his efforts.

Kakko-sensei snorts. Brats. They're all idiots. He still wonders if the Tsuchikage was punishing him for something he definitely doesn't deserve or his Tsuchikage wanted _Troublemaker #1_ out of Academy.

"Like what? You think a bunch of civilians are a threat to us?" Chotan pins down Uta and holds Uta's arm behind his back. "Something _bigger_?" He taunts.

"Genjutsu. There are genjutsu for interrogations," Kakko-sensei cuts in.

"Genjutsu? You sent us away for something as dumb as that?" Uta stares at Kakko-sensei in disbelief and Chotan can't help agreeing when he hears that. Using genjutsu to compel people for answers doesn't sound bad.

" _Ah_ ," Kakko-sensei smiles in that not so pleasant way of his. He crouches to both boys' eye levels. He continues his knife-cut and sharp smiling. "I suppose you enjoy watching people squirming on the floors with wide, dead eyes? Drooling with rolled up eyes, crying for their mom and begging for sweet release. You might see them rolling in their vomit."

"You broke their mind?" Chotan tries to voice calmly without stuttering. Uta blanches and turns green. Kakko-sensei laughs and shakes his head, amused.

"The worst part is? They can act like it had never happened. That level of genjutsu is nothing to play around with. All three of you have no stomachs for this. There's a distinction between killing your opponents as swiftly as possible and another difference when inflicting pain that penetrates deep into their minds that you could turn them into a vegetable." Kakko-sensei pauses for effect. "With _one_ wrong move."

Chotan lets go of his hold on Uta and ends up looking at the wall besides Kakko-sensei's head. Uta is too obvious about it and looks like he's a minute away from puking. He rubs his face. Then Uta squints his eyes at Kakko-sensei and raises an eyebrow.

"Are-"

Kakko-sensei holds up a hand to stop Uta from finishing speaking.

"Don't look too ashamed, brats." Kakko-sensei says nothing and keeps his expression guarded. He combs a hand through his ratty hair. "Not unless you go into this field or need to guard an interrogation target, you won't need to witness this."

A gasp is heard at the end of the alleyway, there stands a girl of short stature and with red eyes that look like they glow. Fear paints her expression and makes her blanch green.

"She _sees_ us?" Kakko-sensei sharpens his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Did you know that this is Kakko is from canon? He's younger here in the timeline and became a jonin-sensei to an OC team.
> 
> Thank you for reading this far.


End file.
